Finance minister appoints ex chairman of the anti-EU lobby group, CNi (Campaign for National Independence) to the chairmanship of the Malta Statistics Authority
The Finance Minister announced today that he has appointed Albert Leone Ganado to the chairmanship of the Malta Statistics Authority.
Albert Leone Ganado was chairman of the anti-EU group, CNi (Campaign for National Independence) until he was replaced by oddball former prime minister, Gaddafi/Mintoff loyalist and fervent EU opponent Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici.
His fellow CNi stalwart was the legendary denizen of the internet comments-boards, Eddy Privitera.
The motto/pledge of this group formerly led by the new chairman of the Malta Statistics Authority is:
WE SWEAR TO FREE MALTA FROM THE SLAVERY, COLONIALISM AND DICTATORIAL ILLEGAL EUROPEAN UNION RULE
WE WANT INDEPENDENCE FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION
SUPPORT OUR FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE AND FREEDOM
FREE AND NEUTRAL MALTA SHALL OVERCOME
Of course, Edward Scicluna said none of this when announcing his appointment. Instead, he described Albert Leone Ganado as “an academic” (so very 1970s socialist).
The Malta Independent reports today:
During the press conference, Prof. Scicluna welcomed the newly appointed members of the Malta Statistics Authority, which will be chaired by Albert Leone Ganado, an academic.
And this after the finance minister had a bit of a rant about the flaws of data collection for the purposes of statistics, saying that there are weaknesses in the reliability of GDP data.
So making the former CNi chairman, who I clearly remember addressing whacko anti-EU meetings with KMB, chairman of the Statistics Authority is going to solve our problems in this department.
But that’s only part of it. What really gets me is that Albert Leone Ganado’s main qualification for the post is that he is the most Godawful Laburist – not that there is anything wrong with being one, but he’s the sort who has spent the last few years bitching about the Nationalist Party, the Nationalist government, Lawrence Gonzi, and so on and so forth, in a manner which makes it obvious that he’s just driven by spite, hatred and bitterness. Oh, and by sheer anger at the fact that the Nationalist government took Malta into the EU and – oh horrors – the Eurozone.
And then they want us to believe that they’re no longer anti-EU membership. Oh yes, right.
X’wahda ghamilna b’idejna.
The interesting thing is that Albert Leone Ganado isn’t even a statistician or an economist – he’s an IT man.
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http://www.independent.com.mt/articles/2013-07-31/news/finance-minister-casts-doubts-over-past-gdp-data-2216689664/
http://www.cnimalta.org/090503econf.html
All the criticism and comments about Joseph Muscat’s and other ministers’ appointments (iced buns) are like water ff a duck’s back. It seems that they are making the government immune to criticism and ever more shameless.
The ministers appear to be in competition among themselves about who will make the most ridiculous, inappropriate, spiteful, incompetent, outlandish appointment. And even worse they seem to be enjoying it.
Cost cutting? Right.
The previous administration seems to have left quite a bit of money in the till. So, let us use it to feather our nests and to hell with the consequences.
What cost cutting? The numbers published showed that expenditure in the first six months of the year rose over last year. The saving grace was the fact that income also rose, but pertinent to point out that of the increase in income Euro 59 million came from the EU.
If the cabinet is having fun making outrageous appointments, we can have some fun as well and in the spirit of the song festival vote for the strangest and most spiteful choices that have been made.
My top 5 would be:
Franco – 5 points
John Dalli – 4 points
Jason Micallef – 3 points
Ronnie Pellegrini – 2 points
Justine Scerri Herrera – 1 point
I could only remember a few others because I have little access to information from Malta. I don’t live there, though I’m Maltese. Maybe a suitable award – a golden iced-bun – can be found or created for the one who ends up with the highest aggregate of points.
http://www.businesstoday.com.mt/2003/01/22/t2.html
Tghid dan “tixwix” isejhulu tal-Labour?
http://www.brugesgroup.com/eu/what-future-the-eu.htm?xp=event
Skuzani, mhux x’ghamilna b’idejna, imma x’wahda dahhluna fieha dawk il-qabda koccuti hodor, opportunisti, u nies bla principji li, minkejja s-sinjali cari ta’ inkompetenza u duplicita ta’ Joseph Muscat u l-qabda qlafat li ghandhu mieghu, xorta wahda ghazlu li jivvutaw PL.
Amen.
Prosit “min jaf”
Prof Leone Ganado is the perfect person to work with Eurostat and the rest of our colonial lords?
What a mess! Gas down ghal gol-hajt!
As Scicluna described him as an academic, can he just list his last 10 academic, peer reviewed, contributions? That way we can judge is capabilities.
I guess that if he is “Mr. Albert Leone Ganado” who posts comments on timesofmalta online, then he’s got hundreds of contributions there, reviewed at best by Eddy Privitera and that Laiviera guy. They too are Laburisti, so I guess that counts as peer review.
I believe his D.Phil was in mathematics.
[Daphne – That’s like saying you have a degree in civil engineering, so you can make cars.]
His DPhil is in Computing. As a former student of his, I heard it from the horse’s mouth that his was the first doctorate in computing ever obtained by a Maltese person.
As an academic field, computing does not include solely the process of machine learning / programming. Leone Ganado used to teach in softer areas such as project management and quantitative techniques. Maybe it’s this interest that made him eligible for chairing the statistics board. This is obviosuly in addition to his lasting legacy as a socialite stalwart.
And I have it from the horse’s mouth that his D.Phil was on C* algebra, a branch of mathematics.
Most of the IT stuff he lectures on nowadays wasn’t around when he got his doctorate.
U iwa mhux xorta. Mhux it-tnejn ghandhom x’jaqsmu man numri.
The mathematical formulas of stats are composed of simple additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions. Basically up to form 2 maths.
What you really need is a good grasp of how to collect data, which stats can be used and how to use it to obtain the best picture one can get for the whole population from a sample ranging between 300 and 500 persons. For this post you need a well trained statistician.
Leone Ganado has reached retirement age and is due to retire from his university post. He has been given this position by another geriatric person, the finance minister, in Muscat’s young and dynamic team.
“The mathematical formulas of stats are composed of simple additions, subtractions, multiplications and divisions. Basically up to form 2 maths.”
How wrong you are. If that were so, we would teach statistics up to form 2. But we start at university, because the concepts are rather deeper than this.
But you’re right on the geriatric bit of course. Leone Ganado is typical of the Maltese generation of 1960s graduates, when a degree practically came with a tenured position and lots of cushy government jobs.
So much for ‘giving today’s youth a chance’, eh, oh Friends of Justine Scerri Herrera.
Such public appointments require really balanced and seriously competent people if our public administration needs to excel.
Albert Leone Ganado’s involvement in CNI shows a high degree of skewed mentality against the EU. Appointing him as head of our MSA is quite daring and surely not based on meritocracy, like so many other appointments in public boards.
What a state we’re in.
Skond ma jinghad, Albert Leone Ganado ghadhu regolarment jidher fuq Smash TV fi program tas-CNI ma Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, it-tnejn li huma jmaqdru l-EU kemm jifilhu.
back in the late ’70s, Dr Leone Ganado used to lecture me when I was readings for my Maths degree. His D.Phil was in Mathematics but during those years he was lecturing Computer Science as a branch of Mathematics. Funnily enough, speaking of Computers in those Mintoffian years was almost equivalent to treason!
It might suffice to say that Dr Leone Ganado rose through the ranks at University after Dr Pule resigned as head of the Maths Department (and, if not mistaken, was immediately offered the Chair of the Faculty at Dublin University!) when Mintoff had announced that with the demise of the ‘old University’, the Mathematics department was to disappear from University. Is this why Dr Leone Ganado is so grateful to Mintoff?
Completely off topic from the main article, but it really is such a pity that they never did manage to entice Pule’ back to Malta, or anyone of his calibre.
I have nothing but admiration for the lecturers in the maths department, but it seems they have very little interest in applied maths or anything remotely mainstream, and are content to study their own esoteric fringe topics. I don’t understand why they refuse to employ people (they don’t have to be Maltese) with expertise in mainstream mathematics.
The lecturers themselves are reinforcing the misconception that maths is useless or not relevant beyond teaching, and really discourages new students from pursuing maths as a primary subject. I wonder when was the last time a university student decided to choose maths as his/her specialisation.
It’s really a pity, especially considering that its counterparts in other Med. islands like Cyprus or Crete fare far better and employ some world class mathematicians.
Sorry, rant over.
As regards the NSO board, Leone Ganado aside, I must say I’m surprised at the restraint they showed in selection of the committee, I was honestly expecting worse.
One look at the guy and you will realize he’s not all there.
Just one cucumber short of a picnic.
Have you heard the one about the time when he was at a wedding and allegedly left for home, forgetting his wife behind?
This is such a positive appointment considering that Eurostat depends on the NSO for vital statistical information…
I had the pleasure of being lectured by Profs. Leone Ganado during my University years. I can assure you he is an IT man. Data is information in its raw state. Therefore he is the right man for the job.
I think I don’t need to mention this however our political views differ drastically.
” I can assure you he is an IT man. Data is information in its raw state. Therefore he is the right man for the job.”
How does that follow?
The NSO is not just a data processor. It collects the data it processes. Data is not collected at random. If it is to be useful at all, it has to be grounded in sound theory. What data is collected, how, where, when and why are fundamental to informed policy-making.
Are you still sure being ‘an IT man’ is enough? Ivan Grech Mintoff is an IT man. He wasn’t made head of the NSO. He was made head of the adoption board.
Actually, data in its raw form is useless. What is important is what one does with it and how one interpretes it.
So no, just being able to churn out the numbers as an IT person does not necessarily mean he is the right man for the job.
And yes, mentioning that your political views differ drastically has probably biased your view of his capabilities as a statistician as compared to his capabilities as an IT man, which no one is putting to doubt.
Albert Leone Ganado may be an “academic”, but he’s not a particularly inspiring one, I must say.
Back in Uni days I used to have a study unit with him. Apart from the unbelievable boredom that we always had to look forward to during his lectures, I never remember him being on time for a lecture.
It was a matter of routine that some student or other always had to go drag him out to the lecture hall from wherever he’d been holed up, otherwise he would never show up. As if that weren’t enough he’d always scurry away at least 15 minutes before the end of the lecture. The end result of this was that his lectures always lasted at most 30 minutes out of the allotted hour.
If I remember correctly he was the dean of.the faculty at the time, so he could pretty much do as he well pleased and nobody would so much as raise a finger at him.
Luckily enough his subject wasn’t particularly demanding.
‘Legendary denizen’ – ?
More like the mother of all clowns and buffoons.
During the 70 -80s Labour years I used to ‘admire’ his mental acrobatic feats to justify the actions of that lot of madmen.
Time has passed and his mental agility is no more (if there was any in the first place).
A nerd/weirdo tal prima classi and has always been so since his childhood days.
Unless there are more than one, Albert Leone Ganado is known for his anti P.N. comments on the Times of Malta for these last years.
That in itself confirms that all appointments by this government were given on meritocracy.
I see shades of 1971 to 75 coming over.
Yesterday on Radio101 the minister of finance was asked about his income in 2012, inter alia he said that he did not declare his income because it was public since he declared the sources of income, and because it would be better that he doesn’t compare his past income to the present one as minister. When pressed on the amount he earned last year, he said the figure was around €150,000.
I am not at all surprised by his income, and sincerely think that a finance minister deserves that income. For political mileage Joseph Muscat chose that his ministers earn a pittance for their work, every minister knew what he or she was in for.
On today’s The Times:
Johann Buttigieg is the new chief executive officer of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority, a post that comes with a €60,000 pay packet, Times of Malta has learnt.
Mr Buttigieg had been earmarked for the post before an internal call for applications was issued after former CEO Ian Stafrace resigned.
He was one of two applicants and was cho- sen by a selection committee which, sources said, included Mepa chairman Vince Cassar.
The €60,000 salary is actually €5,000 less than what Dr Stafrace used to get.
He gets more than his minister!
With kind permission, I cannot quite understand why there could, or should, be any significant / substantial polemic with regard to Prof. Leone Ganado’s appointment as Chairman of the Malta Statistics Authority.
I am a university graduate myself and, hence, I humbly consider myself as an academic, even though my career did not lead me to an official teaching post at a university.
Daphne, despite your investigative prowess, for which many could / should be thankful, it seems to me that your blog unfortunately often assumes form and style of an obligatory denigration on many an occasion. Please allow me to quote one of your earlier personal interventions, which can be read on this thread:
[Daphne – That’s like saying you have a degree in civil engineering, so you can make cars.]
Would I be allowed to refer you to the causa Javier Solana?
[Daphne – I’m sorry, Leo, but you and I must part company on this one. No, Leone Ganado is not a statistician. And yes, the very fact that he was prominent in the CNi (a loony organisation as well as an anti-EU one) makes him unfit and unsuitable – and inappropriate – for the role.]
Oh did his best pupil Konrad Mizzi put him there?